Lovecraft Country
Now a Major HBO Series
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3.4 • 10 Ratings
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- £0.99
Publisher Description
The New York Times bestselling book behind the HBO Series from J.J. Abrams, Misha Green and Jordan Peele (Director of Get Out).
A blend of magic, power, hope, and freedom that stretches across time, touching diverse members of two black families, Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country is a devastating kaleidoscopic portrait of racism – the terrifying specter that continues to haunt us today.
Journey into the depths of Lovecraft Country . . .
Chicago, 1954. In the starkly segregated Jim Crow America, Atticus Turner, a twenty-two year-old Army veteran, embarks on a road trip to New England to find his missing father, Montrose. He is accompanied by his Uncle George – publisher of The Safe Negro Travel Guide – and his childhood friend, Letitia.
As they travel, they encounter both the terrors of white America and malevolent spirits that seem straight out of the weird tales George devours. Their destination is the manor of Mr. Braithwhite: heir of the estate that once enslaved Atticus's ancestor.
In this ominous realm, Atticus discovers his father in chains, imprisoned, a victim of a secretive cult named The Order of the Ancient Dawn. They have gathered to orchestrate a shocking ritual, with Atticus at its centre. And his one hope of salvation may be the seed of his – and the whole Turner clan’s – destruction . . .
'At every turn, Ruff has great fun pitting mid-twentieth-century horror and sci-fi clichés against the banal and ever present bigotry of the era' – New York Times Book Review
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This timely rumination on racism in America refracts an African-American family's brush with supernatural horrors through the prism of life in the Jim Crow years of the mid-20th century. The novel's episodic events involve the extended family of Chicagoan Atticus Turner, who are lineal descendants of slaves once owned by the ancestors of New Englander Caleb Braithwhite. As Braithwhite jockeys for ascendancy in the sorcerous Order of the Ancient Dawn, he draws Turner and his family and friends into a variety of intrigues, including the recovery of a book of occult lore, the manipulation of a Jekyll-esque split personality, and encounters with ghosts. Ruff (The Mirage) has an impressive grasp of classic horror themes, but the most unsettling aspects of his novel are the everyday experiences of bigotry that intensify the Turners' encounters with the supernatural. Readers will appreciate the irony of how the Turners' conditioning in enduring racial bias empowers them to master more macabre challenges.
